Alienware Area 51 m15x review

The Alienware Area 51 m15x is a gaming laptop that stomped all over our WorldBench 6 benchmark, earning the highest laptop performance score to date and running effortlessly through our current graphics tests.

Expert's Rating

OVERALL

BUILD QUALITY

FEATURES

VALUE FOR MONEY

Price when reviewed

From £979 inc VAT (and delivery)

Gaming laptops have an intimidating rep as monstrous machines that weigh a ton and cost as much as a Death Star. So let's get a couple things out of the way, up front: The Alienware Area 51 m15x stomped all over our WorldBench 6 benchmark, earning the highest laptop performance score to date (97) and running effortlessly through our current graphics tests. It should come as little surprise, then, that with such great power comes an even greater price tag - even the base configuration of the Alienware Area 51 m15x starts at £979 inc VAT and delivery.

However, the nVidia 8800M GTX GPU humming under the Alienware Area 51 m15x's hood is what ensures that you'll enjoy decent frame rates at the machine's native 1920 by 1200 resolution. Scoring well on our benchmark is great, of course, but the real challenge for a gaming laptop is to see how it handles new, demanding games that tax even high-end desktop PCs.

Running our gauntlet of tests at 1920 by 1200, the Alienware Area 51 m15x generated 46 frames per second (fps) in World in Conflict and 26 fps in Crysis.

Dropping down to 1024x768-pixel resolution, the machine fared better, producing 41 and 63 fps for World in Conflict and Crysis, respectively.

Somewhere between those sets of numbers lies the real-world truth: although the Area 51 m15x runs as well as a midrange gaming desktop does, don't expect to attain the notebook's native resolution with everything. Even so, you can try to tweak its performance to eke out every last bit of oomph, using the built-in Fusion power-optimising utility; the handy drop-down menus and sliders help you reach peak performance.

The Alienware Area 51 m15x is a gaming laptop that stomped all over our WorldBench 6 benchmark, earning the highest laptop performance score to date and running effortlessly through our current graphics tests.

The real shocker about this impressive performance is that it comes from a well-built 15in notebook, not some table-eclipsing desktop replacement. This beast will be able to slip into most laptop bags. That's not to say that the Alienware Area 51 m15x isn't heavy: You'll lug around a 3.2kg anchor for your portable gaming - an anchor that barely musters 1 hour, 40 minutes of play time. That battery life is well below average, even by desktop-replacement standards. Even though this machine screams "play me", offering a Blu-ray drive, a solid stereo sound system, and HDMI-out, it won't last you long.

Once you do set up shop somewhere, the backlit keys might distract you from the fact that the keyboard dips a little under pressure. That isn't a horrible offence, but the fact that you can change the neon trim lining the notebook to red or white (or just toggle it off) doesn't outweigh the need for a portable to be rock-solid and bulletproof if you're spending two grand on it.

It's funny, because the Alienware Area 51 m15x's layout almost feels alien in that it has minimal seams, stickers, and openings. The disc drive has no manual eject button (that's assigned to a function key on the keyboard). The inputs (three USB, one FireWire) stay out of your way. The special function shortcut keys at the top are touch-sensitive - there's nothing to press. Heck, you wouldn't even know where the touchpad was if it didn't have LED lighting surrounding it. (And it's interesting that the two mouse buttons hide behind a single bar at the bottom of the touchpad, with the left side of the bar being the left click.)

The only potential downer here, besides the laptop's price, is that all of the LED lighting that helps you customise your machine also makes the top of the display feel a little flimsy. Yep, the display, probably the most susceptible part of the computer, creaks when you lift it. Honestly, that's the most disconcerting thing about the Alienware Area 51 m15x--and, considering the portable's cost, we can't help but notice it.